“The outsize role of private intelligence firms and their willingness to manufacture “truth” constitutes a sort of epistemic warfare.”

I’ve long suspected the paid message board trolls. Manufactured consent, indeed. One big takeaway I hope people get: this is a perfect example of why most conspiracy theories are bullshit. SOMEONE will always spill the beans.

These kids (and their teachers), at the Susan E. Wagner High School Performing Arts Program in Staten Island, give me hope for the future. They were absolutely amazing at Circle in the Square’s “Teens on Broadway” show, performing a long medley from IN THE HEIGHTS. It was a privilege to see them work. Their program should be a model for the nation on how to do the Arts right in a high school.

Don Barton brought “Zaat” to life in the early 1970s, and while the movie about the giant radioactive walking catfish-human monster was quiet for decades, it never really went away.

After 45 hours of exposition and stock footage about the wonders of the walking catfish, the World’s Worst Mad Scientist finally gets around to injecting himself and turns into a rubber masked unicorn of some sort. He looks in the mirror. “Not much like a catfish, but it IS beautiful!!’ *facepalm*